Young Adult Author

Monthly Archives: August 2011

part 2 of author matthew reeve‘s discussion on the ya industry in japan. i’ve never heard of visual novels, but it sounds like the perfect blend of manga and gaming. only in japan! and it’s so interesting to find out that ebooks are struggling in a country that’s known for its technology. love the twist on how maybe paper will eventually evolve to beat out ebooks.

gretchen kolderup’s article on everything you could ever want to know about what’s going on with ya today. it’s a bit of a read, but explains so well how it’s more than just, you know, books for teens.

have you guys heard of minecraft? it’s this massively addictive online game that has the power to swallow you whole. my husband and kids now live in a world i don’t understand, with things like creepers, mining, diamond ore. writer ben godby blogs about making the mistake of getting sucked in. but it’s win win for us here. while everyone else plays, i waste time on youtube and find new tumblr sites to waste even more time write, research, edit.

canadian dj/producer deadmaus is a huge minecraft fan. turns out he’s got a creeper hat just like my son (as pointed out to us by a waitress at white spot the other day).

even more randomness: i was shocked to find out that kfc’s double down has only 540 calories! must try immediately! but so much fat, so much salt. le sigh.

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is. so. true. author natalie whipple’s blog post about how life changes after getting a book deal. in terms of the freak out when i got the news, you can bet i let loose with a little dance and a whole lot of screaming. good thing no one else was home, it was not a pretty sight!

the part about friends…well, stuff like this is what sorts the good from the bad, you know? it’s really not hard to tell who’s genuinely happy for you, and who’s…not. like, really, really, not.

life’s short. may i offer some delicious scandy to alleviate some of the bitterness?

reviews. gah. at least i have two years to build up a super thick skin? a killer willpower to not read them? to not even want to read them?

hmm, acknowledgements. i haven’t given this much thought at all. catching me on a bad day might have me resorting to thanking the cats for being such wonderful listeners and agreeing that all my ideas rock.

to be honest, i never think much beyond manga when i think about books in japan. the next time we go to tokyo, i’ll have to spend more time in the bookstores. or maybe this justifies a weekend trip down to the kinokuniya bookstore, seattle location.

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my husband sent me the link to this parody book, the elements of f*cking style. i don’t know, the description did make me laugh, but i might have laughed more if grammar still doesn’t kind of freak me out a little bit. i think it always will. modifiers, participles, superlatives…oy.

i took a linguistics course in school, and the only thing i remember is how we spent an entire hour discussing the merits of “meander” versus “meander about”.